Commentary

The transloading trend is placing severe pressure on the largest container gateway in the Americas, where the adjacent Los Angeles and Long Beach ports handled a combined 14.4 million 20-foot-equivalent units last year.

LONDON – NOL Group swung to a net profit of $890 million in the second quarter from a $54 million loss a year ago, almost entirely due to the gain from the sale of APL Logistics to Japan’s Kintetsu World Express.

Reports in the past twenty four hours that Hapag-Lloyd has hired investment banks to advise on an initial public offering and the Singapore government is selling its majority stake in Neptune Orient Lines have refuelled speculation of a merger between the two ocean carriers.

Asia-Europe freight rates are now 82 percent lower than at the same time last year, dropping by 15.6 percent this week to settle at the latest record low of $205 per 20-foot container, according to the latest reading of the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index.